Mission Statements Law and Ethics

What is a mission statement? Establishes the principles, aim, values and philosophy of the student media. Another effect of a mission statement would be to set the priorities and principles for the editorial policy.

Think carefully about what you write Many mission statements simply say things like: • Serve the student community • Inform, lead and entertain • Reflect the school community Are you sure this is all you want your student media to be known for? Is setting the bar at entertainment really a goal? While this question might be controversial to some, it is an honest question. Entertainment has its time and place in scholastic media, but is that all there is? If admins and students are used to a strong diet of entertainment, will they adjust to more serious reporting. Rather than specify approaches, consider the following concepts instead:

Other concepts to consider for your mission statement: Audience engagement Journalistic responsibility Additional reporting basics Ethical reporting and editing Student-determined content Diversity of ideas and representation Platform consistency Connection to school mission statement Audience engagement can run from crowdsourcing to creation of Action Plans to educate all your communities; it can be quizzes and contests to depth and solutions journalism Journalistic responsibility stresses accuracy, verification, credibility and more; it brings standards to the overworn responsibility phrase Additional reporting basics can include solutions journalism, packages of all the content you need to know in one place Ethical reporting and editing can refer to a professional approach to content and presentation, negating a need for prior review Student-determined content establishes freedom of expression and a core based in the Constitution Diversity of ideas and representation open student media to the forum concept and the importance of all people seeing themselves in or creating coverage Platform consistency establishes a continuation of standards across all your student media Connection to the school’s mission statement ties student media to the school entrenching it as an integral part of the learning process

A model to consider: _____________ (school name) student media publish complete and accurate coverage across platforms through journalistically responsible, ethically reported and edited content. Student-determined expression promotes democratic citizenship through public engagement diverse in both ideas and representation. This is not meant to be a final statement but a discussion starter. The phrasing and terminology should reflect student media and approaches important to your school and community.

Foundational standards to guide student media: • Mission statement (what we’re doing now) Other parts: • Policy (media-level and/or board-level) • Ethical guidelines • Staff manual procedures These statements work together to form the a “Foundation Model” that works as one document, but with four clearly separated sections, covering all student media in the school. We’ll explore the Foundation model more later, but today we are focusing on the first part, the mission statement. This refers to the idea that the mission statement is only one of four parts to help students establish and carry out their student media. Together, the parts create an image and a philosophy for journalistic media that can make a difference.

Questions?